Four paintings by Pablo Picasso from the artist's late period will go under the hammer at Sotheby's New York this November with a combined estimate exceeding $42 million, in one of the most substantial single-owner-flavoured Picasso consignments of the season. Two of the four canvases have not been seen in public since a 1970 exhibition in Avignon — the last major show of the artist's lifetime — lending the group a freshness to the market that auction specialists prize.

The works were painted between 1964 and 1972, a stretch of Picasso's career sometimes described as his "heroic years", when his brushwork loosened into an expressive, almost improvisational mode in the final decade of his life. The anchor of the group is Femme nue et homme au fanion (Nude Woman and Man with a Pennant), dated 1969, which carries a presale estimate of $15 million to $20 million. Late Picasso has enjoyed renewed critical and commercial attention in recent years, and fresh-to-market examples of this vintage rarely come to auction.

Ahead of the sale, Sotheby's is previewing the quartet at its Paris showroom through 23 October, a move that places the paintings in front of collectors gathered in the French capital for Art Basel Paris week. The timing slots the Picassos into a crowded November calendar in New York, where the evening sales are expected to test appetite for trophy modern art after a patchy few seasons.

A combined $42 million estimate would make the consignment one of the headline lots of the month. Whether the group clears that bar will depend on how far bidders chase late-period Picassos, whose market has historically been more volatile than the prices commanded by his Cubist and Blue Period masterpieces.